Viral image of heavily garlanded French President Macron is morphed
An image of French President Macron heavily garlanded is viral on social media.
By Satya Priya BN Published on 30 July 2021 12:12 PM GMT
An image of French President Macron heavily garlanded is viral on social media.
"President Macron is turned into a human wreath during his official welcome to French Polynesia (sic)," reads the message.
A user even shared a tiny video showing the viral image of the heavily garlanded President.
Several users, even some verified users shared this image. Some journalists also shared this image.
Fact check:
The viral image showing the French President covered to his knees with Flower garlands is MORPHED. The claim is FALSE.
When searched using Google Reverse image search, we found that the image has been morphed. A news report by Euro News, a Pan-European television news network, shows that the French President was welcomed with garlands. However, only a few garlands only can be seen.
Titled 'French president Macron visits former colonies in French Polynesia', the report contains a one minute and twenty seconds long video clip of President Macron being greeted upon his arrival in Tahiti's main city of Papeete.
We also found the same video on Euro News YouTube channel. At 54 seconds, the video shows the actual situation.
We also found a report by `sputniknews.com', which states that many outlets have been duped by this doctored image of Macron.
According to the report, Illuminati Reptilien, a French satirical Twitter account known for the creation of doctored video shorts, posted an eight-second video of officials in French Polynesia officials draping the president in traditional garland necklaces. The final seconds of the video show Macron standing alongside other officials totally covered in flowers from his head to his knees.
Some person took the screenshot from this morphed video and shared it as original on social media, which duped everyone.
The report also states that Illuminati Reptilien is well-known in French meme culture for creating doctored videos at public officials' expense. Sometimes, they repurpose videos posted by politicians themselves, others, use clips from appearances on television, but always with hilarious results.
This claim has been debunked by smhoaxslayer.com also.
Therefore, a morphed image has been passed off as original. The claim is FALSE
